Esterification of acetic acid and benzyl alcohol over Zeolite HX produced from bangka belitung kaolin

The activity of zeolite HX acid catalyst synthesized from kaolin was investigated for esterification of acetic acid with benzyl alcohol. Zeolite HX was synthesized using kaolin minerals obtained from Bangka Belitung Sumatra, Indonesia via hydrothermal method and followed by cation exchange treatment. The conversion of acetic acid was driven by the presence of Brønsted acidity with the porosity plays a crucial role in determining product selectivity. The influence of reactants concentration, the effect of reaction time and the amount of catalyst loading were investigated to obtain optimum condition of the reaction. Zeolite HX catalyzed esterification of acetic acid to achieve 58.78% of conversion with increasing the concentrations of benzyl alcohol enhanced the conversion. The acetic acid esterification follows the Eley-Rideal mechanism with the conversion improved by prolonging the reaction time and increasing the amount of catalyst used in the system.